The Spanish More To Life Weekend – Part II

The Spanish More To Life Weekend was first an intention of Felipe Gomez. He wanted the weekend to be offered to his countrymen, in their native tongue. With that in mind, he became a mentor and started teaching More To Life mentor courses. During that process, he enrolled Marisa Hidalgo, who started doing simultaneous translation for his courses, and the two of them became committed to creating the More To Life Weekend.

Last weekend, their intention was realized in a converted monastery, Fray Luis de Leon Conference  Center in Guadarrama, Spain, about 45 minutes north of Madrid (which is in the center of the country).  There were 36 Spanish speaking participants (about half of which could either speak or understand English, about 14 team members (2 of which do not speak Spanish), plus 2 trainers (who have flirted with speaking Spanish) gathered in a big, round room with about 5 stories of head room – the heart of the library. It really was a magical room … and a major issue for audio.  Rows 1, 3 and 4 could hear easily; row 2 was a dead zone – but only sometimes.

As mentioned in my last post, the 36 participants were already leaders in their own right and were there to learn even more. Because the weekend was also residential, we all ate together (good food, by the way), which created even more of a sense of camaraderie

By the end of the weekend, I was getting a little more confident about my limited knowledge of the Spanish language. During the last major process, all the translators were facilitating, so I grabbed some Spanish that had been parked somewhere in my grey matter and started communicating on my own to the group.  It is a very sensitive part of the weekend, and I was saying phrases that would hopefully deepen their experience. At one point, several of them started smiling, so I reviewed what I had just said. Instead of saying "eye to eye, heart to heart" (ojo a ojo, corazon a corazon), I said "ajo a ajo" …. which means "garlic to garlic".  No wonder they were amused! 

I so enjoyed this experience, and I am so grateful to Felipe and Marisa especially … for teaching us all how to manifest that which is important to us.

PS  If you click on the picture, it will enlarge – this captures some of the team, some of the participants.